If your end goal is to actually make money from videos, there’s a far better option than simply relying on your measly allocation of ad revenue. Instead, create a YouTube channel and build an audience. The primary goal is to engage this audience and build a brand name. Then, once you've established a reputation, begin driving traffic to your own landing pages where you can up-sell viewers with premium video content.

For any well-meaning kids’ producer, one model to look to for inspiration is Fred Rogers—PBS’s Mister Rogers. Rogers didn’t have any deep academic background in children’s development, but early on, he grasped the educational possibilities of the new medium, and in the 15 years between the first children’s show he produced and the national premiere of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he worked constantly to make it better for kids. ChuChu could well be going through a similar stage now. Founded just five years ago, it’s encountering a different, and tougher, media landscape than Rogers did—but his path is still worth following.

Videos with progressive scanning or interlaced scanning can be uploaded, but for the best video quality, YouTube suggests interlaced videos be deinterlaced before uploading. All the video formats on YouTube use progressive scanning.[84] YouTube's statistics shows that interlaced videos are still being uploaded to YouTube, and there is no sign of that actually dwindling. YouTube attributes this to uploading of made-for-TV content.[85]

In 2013, YouTube introduced an option for channels with at least a thousand subscribers to require a paid subscription in order for viewers to watch videos.[300][301] In April 2017, YouTube set an eligibility requirement of 10,000 lifetime views for a paid subscription.[302] On January 16, 2018, the eligibility requirement for monetization was changed to 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers.[302] The move was seen as an attempt to ensure that videos being monetized did not lead to controversy, but was criticized for penalizing smaller YouTube channels.[303]

One reason is that it caters to a narrow audience of young viewers. Music videos are its most popular content. YouTube’s stars remain relatively unknown. Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg is the biggest star, with 35 million subscribers to his wacky videogame montages. Even Ms. Wojcicki hadn’t heard of him before joining YouTube, she told a conference last fall.

Next up you’ll want to become a YouTube Partner. This isn’t as hard as it used to be. In the past, to become a YouTube partner you had to have some 15,000 hours of your video watched at any point in time. The benefit here is that you can upload more than 15 minutes of video, which may help on some video projects. You also get analytics tools and some more advanced editing tools.

Maybe better or more refined solutions exist, but if the history of children’s television teaches us anything, it’s that the market alone will not generate the best outcomes for kids. Nor is the United States government likely to demand change, at least not without prompting. Heroes will have to emerge to push for change in the new YouTube’d world, just as they did in the early days of broadcast children’s TV. And not all of those heroes will come from the Western world. They’ll come from all over the globe, maybe even Chennai.

In December 2011, YouTube launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to the news feeds of social networking sites.[54] At the same time, a new version of the YouTube logo was introduced with a darker shade of red, the first change in design since October 2006.[55] In May 2013, YouTube launched a pilot program for content providers to offer premium, subscription-based channels within the platform.[56][57] In February 2014, Susan Wojcicki was appointed CEO of YouTube.[58] In November 2014, YouTube announced a subscription service known as "Music Key", which bundled ad-free streaming of music content on YouTube with the existing Google Play Music service.[59]

If you really love making video content, consider doing it as a side hustle – something to beef up your resume, find a creative outlet or boost your professional profile in the area about which you broadcast. When it comes to making it big on YouTube, "It's obviously becoming more challenging as there are more creators out there, and everyone is fighting for an audience," Vaught says. "But the barriers to entry are also lower."
If you’re having trouble getting views, try to be creative on where you share your videos. Targeting an audience with an interest in your type of content works better than trying to appeal to a general audience, so you may find better results from a Facebook (FB) group, sub-Reddit or forum about the specific topic. Also be sure to set up your individual channel settings so if one video becomes popular visitors can easily find related videos you’ve created.
In May 2011, 48 hours of new videos were uploaded to the site every minute,[23] which increased to 60 hours every minute in January 2012,[23] 100 hours every minute in May 2013,[24][25] 300 hours every minute in November 2014,[26] and 400 hours every minute in February 2017.[27] As of January 2012, the site had 800 million unique users a month.[28] It is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.[29] According to third-party web analytics providers, Alexa and SimilarWeb, YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, as of December 2016; SimilarWeb also lists YouTube as the top TV and video website globally, attracting more than 15 billion visitors per month.[1][30][31] In October 2006, YouTube moved to a new office in San Bruno, California.[32]